I had a pile of 15 bananas from our family reunion that were changing from spotted to black and oozy way too quickly.  I decided that yesterday afternoon was the time to turn them into some whole wheat banana bread.  I started grabbing my ingredients when…dunh dunh DUNH!  I forgot to soften the butter!  How often has this happened to you?  For me, it’s happened more times than I can count.  Fortunately, a friend of mine who bakes all the time passed along a great tip, and no, it’s not the microwave.  (DON’T microwave your butter to soften it, bad idea!  Even if it looks solid it’s still melted and the emulsion you need for baking has been broken.  Check out this article on the magic of butter.) Read more

This month, Eric and I have cut our food budget in half to try and save more of the rent we get from our exchange students.  I have to admit that I’ve been slacking a bit in the food budgeting due to the excuse of needing more to feed the boys.  But this month, I’m back on track, meal planning and everything.  One of my favorite tricks for saving money on food is making my own homemade stock.  So today, I’m super excited to share my method of using seafood shells to make a rich and flavorful seafood stock recipe. Read more

Last week I promised to share the recipe for my favorite way to use pumpkin pie flavored sugar, which makes a great edible gift. I love creme brulee because it’s rich and creamy with a crisp top crust that shatters into lovely bits of caramelized sugary goodness. When I want a decadent dessert, it’s the first thing that comes to mind. Around the holidays, I get pumpkin pie at all sorts of gatherings, so at home I love to do a twist and make pumpkin pie creme brulee. It’s less work than an actual pie but just as satisfying.

Creme brulee is a contrast in textures that has two key components.  The first is a custard, made with egg yolks, creme and sugar, with the option of additional ingredients.  The second component is the top crust, sugar that’s melted and then allowed to harden.  This crust appears to be a barrier between you and the silky custard below, but one satisfying whack with your spoon is all it takes to open up a world of velvety indulgence.

Professional chefs us a special torch to make the top crust, but those of us at home can get equally satisfying results with the use of the broiler setting on our oven.  It just takes a watchful eye to make sure you don’t burn your crust (yes, voice of experience speaking!).  The good news is, if you accidentally let it burn then once it hardens you can break it up, scoop it off and try again!

For the custard portion of the creme brulee, I have plenty of egg yolks in my fridge from making about 10 batches of frosting for this year’s gingerbread competition (voting open until December 26!).  The yolks are gently tempered with the hot cream to ensure that they don’t curdle, a really depressing reaction that can’t be reversed.  I walk you through the process in the recipe, but if you’re nervous, you can check out my post on how to temper eggs.

The recipe may look long, but don’t be scared away!  I made another batch last night and had it in the oven in 5 minutes.  Then another five minutes for the top crust after they’d cooled.  My husband and one of our Chinese boys saw how easy it was and asked me to teach them next time!

Have you made creme brulee before?  Any additional tips to share with readers who haven’t?

I’m sure someone somewhere in the world has made pumpkin pie flavored sugar, but I haven’t seen it so I claim it as my own!  The sugar is mixed with ground cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger and allspice to give that signature holiday flavor.  You can use it in your holiday baking, or stir it into hot wine for a delicious holiday cocktail.  My absolute favorite way to use it though is in my pumpkin pie creme brulee.  You can see it peeking out of the top corner of the photo.  That recipe’s coming next, I promise! Read more

When it comes to edible gift giving, I think that vanilla sugar is the most popular of the flavored sugars.  In my post about flavored sugar I talk about how I started making it as a way to use empty vanilla bean pods.  While it’s a great way to make vanilla beans more cost efficient, you can also use all the little beans inside the pod which I explain in the recipe.  I use clean, dry fingers to break up the beans in the sugar.  But if you’ve used the tiny vanilla beans for something else, feel free to just stick the pod in the sugar. Read more